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Mechanical Souls : training session

SYNOPSIS

Mechanical Souls : training session is a collaborative immersive live experience. Audience members are welcomed in an office room, by an Agent and an Android from the A.I. corporation, Mechlife.

Each viewer is treated as a new Mechlife employee. As part of their training they are invited to watch a «case study» in VR: One of their beta-model was a bridesmaid at a high-society wedding in Asia. Its behavior has been more than erratic. The audience need to understand why. The VR film also shows the conflicts among the wealthy families and the struggles for power.

But audience does not know that, based on each viewer’s behavior in VR film, the Al decision engine Digital Rise has developed will create different edits for each viewer. After the viewing, the two actors bring the audience to discuss about the android behavior. The audience will have to share information and debate based on what they have seen.

HIGHLIGHTS

Mechanical Souls : training session is a piece of art that audience members actively engage with, that transcends the screen and leads to dynamic conversations. We learn from our audience members to bring them engaging food for thought as well as entertainment.

It is a social experience, where the viewers work together to reconstruct the story in its entirety. The experience works with the different psychological mechanisms that get audiences to engage with our story.

The viewing area welcomes 6 to 10 users at a time. They sit on swivel chairs placed in a circle. At the end of the 15 minute viewing experience, the viewers take their headsets off and find themselves in the exact same position they started in: all facing each other. The agent talk them through a list of questions, ask them about their observations, assessing their ability to analyse and deduce what happened to the Android (a key Mechlife characteristic!)

CREDITS

30 minutes Immersive theatre experience with a VR film for 6 to 10 users

Directed and staged by Gaëlle Mourre, written by Gaëlle Mourre & L.P.Lee

Coproduced by Digital Rise and Serendipity, in association with DVgroup and Kaohsiung Film Archive